India's retail individual traders in the equity derivatives segment made net losses in fiscal 2025 that widened by 41% to 1.06 trillion rupees, the country's markets regulator said in a study on Monday.
The study comes against the backdrop of a surge in derivatives trading, driven by retail investors, that has prompted the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to limit the number of contract expiries and increase lot sizes to make such trades more expensive.
The tighter measures kicked in between fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2025.
Top 13 stockbrokers, with a combined client base of 9.6 million unique traders were included in the study, against a total market size of 10.7 million traders.
Earlier this month, SEBI barred U.S. securities trading company Jane Street from the local market until further orders and seized $567 million of its funds, saying an investigation found it manipulated stock indices through positions taken in derivatives.
As a result of the tighter measures, index options turnover year-on-year is down by 9% in premium terms, the regulator said. However, compared to two years ago, the index options volume is up by 14% in premium terms.
India is the world's largest derivatives market, accounting for nearly 60% of the 7.3 billion equity derivatives traded globally in April, according to the Futures Industry Association.
